


Complicated

by TheBlubberingFangirlIsHere



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Alex and John are problematic, Angst with a Happy Ending, College AU, F/F, F/M, Lams - Freeform, M/M, angst with pay off, highkey Mullette, slowburn, this thing has kept me up at night, tiny bit of smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-06 01:49:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11026074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBlubberingFangirlIsHere/pseuds/TheBlubberingFangirlIsHere
Summary: It's the problematic college au no one asked for...





	1. Not Half Bad

Chapter 1

Not Half Bad

“Lafayette, let’s _go_!” Alex calls from the front door of the dorm. Lafayette rushes out of his room, pulling on a leather jacket over a white shirt and adjusts the watch on his wrist. Alex looks up at the clock on the wall and taps his foot annoyedly against the floor.

“I’m coming,” Lafayette rolls up the sleeves of the jacket, slipping on his shoes. Alex scoffs and pushes back his hair.

“It’s a concert, not even like a classical concert, why are you dressing up so nicely?” Alex asks skeptically, looking Lafayette up and down. Lafayette tilts his head and crosses his arm, leaning his weight onto one hip.

“Gotta dress to impress,” Lafayette looks Alex up and down. “But obviously you’ve never heard of that saying,” Lafayette points out in a thick french accent. Alex scoffs and looks down at his clothes. He’s wearing a plain white shirt with a emerald green zip-up sweatshirt and blue jeans. A black bracelet hung from his wrist and a silver ring rested tightly on his index finger.

“Yeah, whatever, Richy Rich,” Alex laughs as he opens the door and lets Lafayette through. They start down the hallway and talk about the concert.

“Have you ever heard of them?” Lafayette asks. Alex shoves his hands in his pockets and pulls out his phone in one hand. They still had about twenty minutes to get to the concert.

“Not before I heard about the concert, but I looked them up and they’re actually really good,” Alex says as he opens the door to the dorm’s stair well. They start making their way down the stairs.

“It’s a rock concert, right?” Lafayette asks as they make their way through the door at the bottom of the stairwell that leads out to the parking lot behind the dorms.

“Yeah, it is,” Alex says as he unlocks his car.

“I’ve never been to a rock concert before, what’s it like?” Lafayette asks as he opens the door to the car and hops in. Alex gets in the car and laughs.

“It’s crazy. Also, don’t take any food or drinks from people, and don’t go into the mosh pit unless you like breaking your arm,” Alex laughs as he pulls out of the parking lot and starts making his way over to the college’s event grounds. The college, Liberty College, is one of those ritzy colleges with a lot of land. They have a humongous courtyard, too many buildings all intricately designed, and a humongous event ground off campus. The event grounds were technically just a big place filled with grass and dirt the college used to bring in a bunch of publicity, but either way it’s useless for them to have.

“Why shouldn’t I take food and drink from people?” Lafayette asks with a confused tone. Alex looks over at Lafayette to see if he seriously didn’t know, then he laughs at the childish innocence of Lafayette.

“Don’t take drinks because someone might’ve roofied it. And usually food is filled with drugs. Especially brownies, never take brownies,” Alex explains as he looks around for the little path up to the area. The grounds is infamous for being unsafe, the entire area is surrounded by thick forest. There’s been a lot of stories of creepers trying to lure drunk people back into the woods. According to rumors during big events, like concerts, they have a few of the college police patrolling the woods making sure everything is alright. Though Alex could never confirm it since he makes sure to steer clear of there.

“Wow,” Lafayette laughs as Alex pulls into the gravel “road” and parks near a bunch of cars at the edge of the clearing. They both hop out and start walking up towards the loud concert playing. The band starts playing a cover to “We Will Rock You” as Lafayette starts singing along, bobbing his head with the beat. Everybody in the audience is stomping their feet on the ground and clapping along to the beat. The front singer is doing the thing Freddy Mercury does in the music video where he hits the microphone into the drum and stomps on the ground. _Original,_ Alex thinks as he points over towards the concession stands.

“ _Buddy, you’re a boy, make that big noise, playin’ in the street, gonna be a big man some day! Ya’ got mud on your face, you’re a big disgrace, kickin’ your can all over the place_ ” Lafayette sings along with the front man of the band. Lafayette does have a good voice and probably sounded just as good as the lead singer. Alex laughs as they head towards the concession stands. The music is blaring and the air feels like it’s pulsating with the music.

“ _We will, we will ROCK YOU!”_ the crowd screams, Alex and Lafayette join in. The line for the concession is surprisingly short, probably due to the concert just starting, so it only took a few seconds for them to order.

“What do you want?” Alex yells over the collective screams and music from the band and their audience. Lafayette looks over from the stage and mouths ‘beer’. Alex nods and orders a can of beer and a water, knowing that he’d inevitably be the one driving back to the dorms. The lady from the behind the counter pulls them out and hands them to Alex giving the routine “don’t leave the drinks alone for even a second” speech. Alex says okay and hands the can to Lafayette. They start making their way to the crowd as the song comes to end. There’s a burst of screaming and cheering from the crowd. The front man starts saying thank you. They introduce a new song and the guitarist starts starts the introduction.

The singer looks over the crowd and starts singing, “ _Backstrokin’ lover, always hidin’ ‘neath the covers.”_ Alex and Lafayette start dancing along with the beat, which was really just more of bouncing, and started making their way to the front of the crowd.

“ _Singin’ hey diddle, diddle, with your kitty in the middle_ _of the swing like I didn't care. So I took a big chance at the high school dance with a missy who was ready to play!_ ” The singer continues, not stumbling over any of the words. The guitarist plays quickly with nimble fingers along the neck of the guitar. Alex looks around and doesn’t see Lafayette over all of the other people jumping to the beat with their arms up. He shrugs and continues to dance along to the beat.

 _“At the high school dance with a missy who was ready to play wasn't me she was foolin’ cause she knew what she was doing and I knew love was here to stay,”_ as the singer sang this someone rammed into Alex and both of them fell to the ground. Alex caught himself before he could hurt anything, but he still ended up on the ground. Alex turns angrily towards the person that ran him over.

“ _When she told me to WALK THIS WAY! Walk this way!”_ the singer screams and continues to repeat it. The guy must’ve been taller than Alex and he was sitting, looking over at him too, with his hands pressed against the ground between his legs.

The guy was tan with freckles dusted across his face and on his shoulder, flowing down his arms. His hair is curly and brown and pulled into a tight ponytail with a few curly hairs falling around his ears. He had bright green-brown eyes and his lip was busted, blood dripping from it. He was wearing a Guns n’ Roses tank top and grey skinny jeans with rips in random spot. He had on a pair of black converse and his wrist was filled with bracelets.

“Oh jeez, sorry man, I didn’t mean to run into you!” the guy yelled over the crowd. Alex pushed himself up and sticks a hand out the guy and he takes it hesitantly and Alex pulls him up.

“ _I was a high school loser, never made it with a lady. ‘Till the boys told me something I missed!”_ the guy sang. Alex brushed himself off and looked back up at the guy.

“Your lip’s bleeding, wanna get the first aid kit?” Alex asks over the sound of the crowd screaming along to the band.

“Yeah,” the guy yells. Alex and the stranger make their way out of the crowd as the singer screams about a schoolgirl and classy sass, or whatever. They make their way to one of the concession stands and the lady at the counter asks them what they need. Alex’s ears pounded from the noise of the band and its audience.

“Could we borrow the first-aid kit, he has a busted lip,” Alex explains as he points back to the Guns n’ Roses fan. The lady looks behind Alex and looks at the guy, nods, and pulls a white little box with a red cross on the front and hands it to Alex. “Thanks,” Alex calls over his shoulder as they walk over to the picnic area. Which was really just a few benches where horny couples make out. They sit at the table at the furthest edge where none of the couples were making out. John pushes himself up onto the tabletop and Alex starts rummaging through the box.

“Sorry for running into you, someone pushed me and I tripped over a rock, then I guess I tripped over you,” the guys laughs awkwardly, touching at the cut on his lip. Alex shook his head and took out the cloth from the box and looks around for water.

“No problem, it’s fine. I’ve had worse than that, someone punched me in a mosh pit once and I had a bruise on my ribs for like a month,” Alex laughs as he takes his water bottle and pours some water onto the cloth, handing it to the guy. “Hold this to your lip,” Alex instructs as he looks through the first-aid kit again. The guy holds it to his bottom lip and takes a sharp breath in from pain.

“Nice, once I went to this concert, I think it was Arctic Monkeys or something, anyways I was in the mosh pit and someone punched me and broke my nose,” he laughs as he points to a small scar on the bridge of his nose. “It hurt like hell and I had to leave the concert before they even played “Do I Wanna Know”, I think I was more mad about that than breaking my nose,” the guy jokes, making Alex laugh.

“Aha, found it,” Alex mumbles as he takes out a small tube filled with antiseptic cream. He holds it up to the guy. “Put this on your lip, it’ll sting,” Alex advises as he starts rearranging the medicines and bandages. The guy takes it and looks at it with a confused look and squirts some on his finger, pressing to his lip and cringing as it touches the cut.

“Hey, by the way, what’s your name?” Alex asks, looking up from the box. The guy looks down to his finger and rubs it against the leg of his jeans.

“John, what’s yours?” he says, still inspecting his finger. Alex stands up and takes the tube of antiseptic, putting it back in the box.

“Alexander Hamilton, nice to meet you John,” Alex says as he shuts the box. John nods and listens carefully to the guitar solo from the guitarist on stage. The song ended and everyone cheered and clapped. John smiled brightly and cupped the hand that didn’t have the cloth around his mouth and cheered loudly. Alex laughs softly and looks over to the stage.

The guy on stage’s voice is loud and hoarse from all of the screaming. “Thank you! The next song we’ll be playing is “Welcome to the Jungle”  by Guns n’ Roses!” he points back to the guys on drums and they start playing along with the guy on guitar. John’s eyes light up and he gasps in excitement.

“I love this song! Come on, let’s go and dance,” John cheers as he drops the cloth on the table and starts running towards the crowd of people. Alex runs with him, which he finds difficult ‘cause this guy was _really_ fast. The singer up front starts singing.

“ _Welcome to the jungle, we got fun n’ games! We got everything you need, honey we know the names!_ ” the guy yells. John sings along, closing his eyes and scrunching up his nose as he sings. Alex starts dancing along besides him.

“[ _In the jungle, welcome to the jungle_ ](https://genius.com/Guns-n-roses-welcome-to-the-jungle-lyrics#note-1335064) _! Watch it bring you to your shun n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n knees, knees! Mmm, I wanna watch you bleed!_ ,” everybody sings, John punches into the air and laughs with Alex. He’s jumping along with the beat and has this big smile across his face.

“ _Welcome to the jungle, we take it day by day! If you want it you're going to bleed, but it's the price you pay_!” the guy sings, he’s running around the stage singing and dancing and cheering out. John’s laughing and dancing and singing with Alex laughing and jumping next to him. The guitar solo starts playing and a big wave of cheering and screams surface. The guitarist grins at the crowd and winks to everybody.

“ _Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here everyday! You learn to live like an animal, in the jungle where we play_ ,” the guy continues. Everybody’s jumping and yelling and a group in the front are starting to riot and punch each other. Alex and John are singing and jumping around at the same time. The chorus plays again and it slows down for a moment as the guitar and drums play.

“ _And when you're high you never, ever want to come down. So down, so down, so down yeah_!” the front singer yells, fading off for the big guitar solo. The main guitarist gets to work and starts crazily playing the notes, not missing a beat or note. The crowd goes crazy, everybody screaming and jumping as high as they can. The guitar solo finishes and the lead singer continues.

“ _Welcome to the jungle, watch it bring you to your knees, knees! In the jungle, welcome to the jungle! Feel my, my, my serpentine! In the jungle, welcome to the jungle!_ _Watch it bring you to your knees, knees_ ,” the singer yells as the song starts to culminate towards the ending. Everybody’s stopped jumping and now everybody is just pumping and waving their arms in the air.

“ _In the jungle, welcome to the jungle! Watch it bring you to your… it's going to bring you down_!” the singer trails off. Everybody cheers and screams and everybody is jumping again. Alex closes his eyes and cheers as loud as he can, cupping his hands around his mouth. Someone grabs Alex’s wrist and starts pulling him away. Alex looks over and sees John laughing and leading him out of the crowd. Alex laughs too and they stop at the edge of the crowd. John stretches out.

“Ah! I love that song so much!” John laughs, pushing his hands out in front of him, spreading his fingers out.

“Yeah, I forgot how much I love that song!” Alex laughs as he pulls out his phone to check the time, it wasn’t too late yet.

“Oh, hey, do you want to exchange numbers?” John asks as he pulls out his phone. God only knows how he can keep his phone in those tiny pockets. Alex looks down at his phone, then back up at the smiling John and nods.

“Here,” Alex says as he hands John his phone, and vice versa. Alex adds a new contact, types in his name and number. John starts laughing and Alex looks up with a confused look.

“What?”

“Is your screensaver a collage of your face?” John laughs, covering his mouth. Alex smiles and shrugs.

“I mean, yeah, Lafayette sent it to me and told me to make it my screen saver, so there it is,” Alex laughs, handing John’s phone back to him.

“Nice, mine is just a picture of my pet turtle,” John explains as he flashes the screen up at Alex. It’s a picture of the front half of a small turtle with a red marking near its ear.

“Wow! He’s cute!” Alex smiles as he looks back up at John. John smiles and looks at the picture. “We should probably grab the first aid kit before they come and yell at us for not returning their things,” Alex suggests, pointing back at the picnic area.

“That’s _probably_ a good idea,” John laughs as they start back towards the picnic tables. As they approach the table though, they see two people making out.

“I call grabbing the first-aid kit,”John whispers, with a slight laugh in his voice. Alex scoffs and looks unsurely at the two making out. They look like they’re _really_ going at it.

“But they’re, like, on the rag,” Alex pouts as he watches the two. John laughs and Alex shoots him a glare. “Not helping,” Alex sighs. John laughs again.

“That’s the reason I called the first-aid kit,” John smirks. Alex shakes his head and sticks his tongue out at John. They approach the two and Alex notices one of the guy’s leather jackets. He immediately cringes, and his face goes red. _Oh shit_ , Alex groans in his head.

“Lafayette?” Alex asks, with a dumbfounded look. John looks over at the two and raises his eyebrows, pointing over to the other. Alex looks at the the two with a look that says “is this seriously happening right now?”.

“Hercules?” John half gasps-half laughs only a second later. They both pull away from each other, their hands still under one-another’s shirts. Alex gags and John laughs in response.

“How do you know him?” Alex asks as he points over to the guy making out with Lafayette. He looks tall, not as tall as Lafayette (though not many people were) but still tall, with broad shoulders and seemed to be pretty muscular. He has short brown hair, with a red bandana covering his forehead and part of his hair. He has a black and white plaid button-up shirt with blue jeans and red converse.

“He’s my roommate? How do you know him?” John asks, pointing over to Lafayette. Lafayette looks between John and Alex, a sly smirk growing across his face. _Dear lord, he thinks there’s something going on between John and I as we find him making out with this guy_ , Alex thinks.  

“He’s my roommate too,” Alex answers, looking over at the other two. “By the way, Laf, could you hand me that cloth under your leg?” Alex asks, pointing towards the piece of fabric peeking out from under his leg. Lafayette looks down and pulls it out, tossing it to Alex.

“How much have you two drank?” John sighs. There’s two cans next to them, probably gone or half gone. _If he’s wasted,_ Alex sighs, _I left him alone for what? A half hour?_

“Four cans of beer!” Hercules cheers excitedly. John sighs and pushes back at his hair muttering “oh dear lord” under his breath.

“And you?” Alex asks, raising an eyebrow at Lafayette who smirks and holds up one of the empty cans of beer near them.

“Third!,” Lafayette smirks, swaying his head back and forth to one of the songs the band is playing. They’ve moved from playing covers to their own music, a few of them Alex could recognize from his “research” of their band. Alex pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath.

“I don’t even know what to do with you,” Alex sighs. Lafayette snickers and sticks his tongue out at Alex. Then he smirks at John.

“And why are you two over here?” Lafayette asks with a suggestive tone and wiggling eyebrows. Hercules laughs and smirks at John. Alex and John both sigh at the same time.

“We were coming back to get the first-aid kit, but with your horny agenda you probably didn’t even notice it,” Alex teases as he starts to fold the cloth. John snickers and starts picking the first-aid kit up.

“Har har,” Lafayette sticks out his tongue. Alex laughs and shakes his head.

“Okay have fun making out, I’ll catch you later,” Alex waves as John and him start back to the concession stand. John laughs and shakes his head.

“Well that was an ordeal,” John smiles. Alex laughs and looks back at the two, who promptly resumed their make out session. “And Hercules isn’t usually the type to make out with random people, so it was kind of surprising,” John smiles back at the two.

“Lafayette does that a lot, he’s kind of a hoe,” Alex jokes. They both laugh, John covers his mouth as he laughs. “No, but seriously he’s not even known for drinking more than one glass, so he must be having fun,” Alex smiles. John nods and laughs.

“Is Lafayette a nice guy?” John looks down at Alex, “I mean, as Hercules’s roommate I have to make sure he doesn’t make any regrettable decisions.” Alex laughs and nods.

“Yeah, he’s a great guy, don’t worry. Is Hercules a good guy?” Alex asks as they step up to the concession stands.

“Oh yeah, he can be loud, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing either,” John answers as they both set the items on the desk, the lady tells them thanks and to enjoy the rest of the show. Even though there was only like twenty minutes left.

“So do you live at the dorms?” Alex asks as they walk over to the crowd. They stand at the edge, just far enough to make it look like they were part of the crowd, but far enough back that they could actually hear one another.

“I don’t actually, I live down the street, I share a house with a bunch of people,” John explains. Alex nods and takes a sip of water from his water bottle.

“That’s cool, Lafayette and I live down in the dorms,” Alex shrugs. John smiles and nods.

“Cool, “ John says. The band starts another song and John sings along, making weird gestures and faces, making Alex laugh.

“You seem like a pretty cool guy John,” Alex laughs. John looks over from the stages and smiles.

“You don’t seem half bad either!”


	2. Poli-Sci

“And guess what, he’s a fashion major, but minors in poli-sci! Isn’t that interesting?” Lafayette gushes as they walk over to the poli-sci building. Lafayette has yet to shut up about the guy he met at the concert yesterday. 

“You’ve already told me that. Three times,” Alex sighs, pulling out his phone and responding to a text from the guy he met yesterday at the concert. John texted him this morning and they’ve been texting back and forth since. 

“Well sorry,” Lafayette huffs, “But you have to understand this guy, he was magnifique!” Lafayette smiles up at the sky. He was definately a lot more happy, not that Lafayette was the sad type, he’s just been more energetic than normal. Apparently they called this morning and talked about last night and decided what they were going to do. They decided on having a date tonight and Lafayette was  _ very _ excited for it. 

“Where are you two going tonight?” Alex asks, shoving his phone back into the bag that holds his computer and note book. Lafayette lights up at this question and his eyes seem to sparkle. 

“Actually we’re going to a cafe, that’s why I’m wearing this,” Lafayette motions to his clothes. He’s wearing a white crop top that goes off the shoulders, and light blue high-waisted jeans and some brown ankle boots. He also has a little white daisy poking from behind his ear. If one thing could be said for Lafayette, it was that he knew how to dress. 

“Do you think this guy’s boyfriend material?” Alex asks skeptically. Lafayette was also known for getting ahead of himself, jumping in head first. He got excited before anything was promised. 

“I think he is, he’s smart and kind and funny,” Lafayette hums. Alex laughs and looks off. 

“How would you know? Your guys’s tongues were down each other’s throats almost the entire night,” Alex teases. Lafayette scrunches up his nose and shakes his head. No matter what Alex said he couldn’t annoy Lafayette. 

“Speaking of boyfriend material, what about that John guy? Hercules’s roommate?” Lafayette teases, nudging Alex’s shoulder. Alex laughs and rubs his shoulder. 

“He’s just a friend, Laf, calm down,” Alex smiles. Lafayette smirks and raises an eyebrow with an expression that says “Yeah, sure, okay”. 

“But he’s pretty cute, does he have bad breath or something?” Lafayette asks. Alex rolls his eyes and smiles. 

“What? No, his breath smelt fine.  _ I _ don’t fall in love with strangers,” Alex jokes. Lafayette scrunches up his nose again and sticks his tongue out at him. “By the way, did you even really listen to the concert, or were you more interested in your boyfriend?” Alex asks, raising an eyebrow. Lafayette looks off sheepishly and laughs. 

“Firstly, he’s not my boyfriend. Secondly, I kind of did,” Lafayette smiles nervously. 

“You’re hopeless Laf, absolutely hopeless,” Alex shakes his head, still with a slight smile on his lips. 

“Eh, don’t know what to tell you,” Lafayette shrugs as they walk up closer to the building. The buildings have oak trees between them and there’s a big concrete square in the middle of the four buildings. It’s called ‘The Square’ (creative, right?) and a very popular place for the pot smokers to hang out after they finished their joint. They walk through the concrete path surrounded by green hedges, to The Square. They walk towards the poli-sci building when Lafayette slows to a stop. Alex stops and turns back to Lafayette.

“What’re you doing  _ now _ ?” Alex sighs. Lafayette doesn’t respond, so Alex follows his gaze towards a group of people. It takes Alex a second to realize who he’s staring at but realizes Hercules and John are laughing about something one of them had said. John was wearing a navy blue sweater that’s sleeves were scrunched up near his elbows and light blue jeans and black sneakers. His wrist was still full of all of those bracelets and his hair still looked the same. Hercules had a white t-shirt that was pulled tight against his body and a light blue flannel thrown over top but not buttoned. He still had on that red bandana and the red shoes and black pants. 

“I’m  _ so _ gay,” Lafayette whispers under his breath. Alex scoffs softly with a big grin on his face. Alex watches as Lafayette continues to stare and laughs.

“Are you, y’know, gonna talk to him? Or are you just going to stare,” Alex teases. Lafayette snaps out of his daze and he looks down excitedly at Alex.

“I’m nervous, he looks so good,” Lafayette flickers his eyes back at Hercules. Alex scoffs, rolls his eyes, and crosses his arms. 

“Just go,” Alex laughs as he starts pushing Lafayette towards the other two. Lafayette starts whispering for him to stop and calling him various french cuss words that Alex didn’t care to translate. 

“Lafayette?” Alex can’t see Hercules from behind Lafayette, but he knows that it’s him (besides the voice) from the way Lafayette tenses up. 

“Bonjour Mon Ami,” Lafayette laughs nervously.

“Alex?” John asks. Alex peaks out from behind Lafayette and waves. John laughs and looks between Hercules and Lafayette who were both chatting about how much they had enjoyed last night and how excited they were about the date later. 

“What class do you have?” Alex asks as he turns away from Lafayette’s bright, excited smile. 

“I have poli-sci, you?” John asks, putting his hand in his pocket. 

“Poli-sci?” Alex asks with a confused look on his face. “That’s the class I have right now,” Alex explains, pointing over to the building. 

“Oh nice! It’s crazy we’ve never even seen each other before,” John laughs. Alex smiles and looks over to Lafayette and Hercules. It looks like both have chilled a bit and are calm around each other, which is good, so they won’t have to deal with that awkward situation when they’re on their date. 

“Yeah, I mean you would’ve thought we’d at least see each other,” Alex agrees, putting his hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt. He honestly hadn’t ever seen John in his class or outside of class until last night. “Did you get Hercules back in your guys’ house easily?” Alex asks. 

“He was a blubbering, drunken mess, but other than that, yeah it was easy,” John says it loud enough for Hercules hear him and he looks over to John and makes a face. They all laugh and continue with their separate conversations. 

“Yeah, Lafayette wasn’t much better, I had to carry him on my shoulder. Which I’m sure you can tell was not easy,” Alex laughs. John smiles and nods, glancing over at Lafayette. Mr. Washington opens the door and holds it open with his foot, letting all of the others in. Mr. Washington is the poli-sci professor and debate club leader, which Alex is in. He’s tall and bald with a serious expression, he seems pretty scary but once you got to know him he was nice, relatively that is. He’s known for his ties (he wears a different one everyday) and the black slacks that he seems to have a million pairs of. He’s also known for his stories from when he was in the army, he was a high ranking officer, and he had some of the best stories, they always seem to be Alex’s favorite thing about debate. He left after something like 20 years, and finished college and picked up a job at Liberty College. The four of them start to filter through the crowd of people, towards the door.

“Hey Mr. Washington,” Alex throws up a hand as he passes through the door.

“Alexander,” Mr. Washington says warmly. Everybody else filters into the lecture hall and soon all of the seats are filled and there’s nobody else outside. Mr. Washington shuts the door and looks around the room at all of the students.

He starts to walk up to the front of the room when a kid in the back yells, “Here comes the Professor!” Everybody laughs and Washington throws a hand up to the kid in the back of the room. He makes it the podium and grips the sides of the top. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, glad to see all of you here. A few people I’ve only seen at the start of the year, looking at you, Knox,” Washington laughs. The class snickers, Henry Knox makes a face at Mr. Washington. He pushes off of the podium and walks in front of it. “Now who’s ready to learn about cabinet meetings, often referred to as “Cabinet Battles”?” Washington asks the room. People say “Yay” while others, like Alex holler. 

“Great, let’s get started.”

\------------

“Class dismissed,” Washington waves his hand and people start to shuffle out. Sounds of conversations, chairs pushing away from desks, and papers being collected echo through the big room. 

“Hey, Alex, Lafayette, Hercules and I are going to the library to study for the test and we were wondering if you wanted to join us,” John smiles brightly. Alex looks up to Lafayette, who nods, then turns back to John. 

“Yeah, sounds good,” Alex smiles, “Do you just want text me the details later?” 

“Oh, uh, yeah, sounds good!” John smiles. The group migrates out of the lecture hall and stand in the middle of The Square. 

“Alex do you mind if Hercules and I go on our date right now?” Lafayette asks, taking Hercules’s hand. Alex smirks and raises his eyebrow. 

“Yeah, no, go right ahead,” Alex says, motioning them to shoo. Lafayette smiles and the two turn around and start making their way towards (assumingly) the parking lot, leaving Alex and John by themselves. 

“Hey, wanna go and make sure they have a good date?” John asks nonchalantly. Alex laughs softly, looking over at Lafayette and Hercules. They both have these huge smiles and they were talking with big, expressive gestures. They already looked like a couple, not some strangers that met last night.

“Isn’t that kind of intrusive?” Alex laughs. John looks over at the two from the corner of his eye and shrugs.

“Depends on what you mean by intrusive,” John laughs. Alex scoffs and readjusts his bag strap and smiles. 

“Let’s do it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Thanks for reading


	3. I Guess We're Not So Different

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowie, I haven't posted in a long while

“Do you mind if we stop by my apartment? I wanna drop my bag off,” Alex says, shoving a thumb in the direction of his dorm building. John looks behind him and and gives him this weird look. He smirks only a bit and pushes up his cheek, making it look like only one eye was squinting. 

“Yeah, can we stop by my place too? My house is on the way to the cafe,” John explains, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Alex nods. John smiles softly as they start off towards the dorm. It’s George Dormitories, named after King George III of England, and is the most fancy of the dormitories. It’s a miracle that Alex was placed in them, he had come from a tiny little town in the Caribbean, so the fact that he ended up in the snobby-fancy-dancy dorm was a big surprise.

“Here, turn,” Alex says, pointing towards the fork in the path, one led to another Square and the other led to Alex’s dorm. John nods and they pass the buildings and trees he’s memorized since freshman year. John looking up at the trees that are planted just right to hang over the path and cover the sunlight. 

“Question, what do you think of Laf and Hercules?” Alex asks, peaking at John from the corner of his eye. John looks away from the trees and gives Alex a confused look. “Them dating that is,” Alex adds quickly. 

“I think they’d be cute,” John smiles, “You should’ve heard Herc talking about Lafayette, he would not shut up!” The two laugh.

“Yeah, I know that feeling. Since Laf woke up this morning it was like it was all he could talk about was Hercules,” Alex laughs as he rubs at his nose. John smiles and scoffs, kicking a rock on the ground. They’re almost at the dorm and apparently John knows one of the two people, at least judging by the groan that comes from him.

“Lee,” John groans under his breath ( _ writer’s note: This reminds me of Timmy’s Dad from Fairly Odd Parents _ ) Alex laughs and watches the annoyed glare John’s giving his neighbor. They walk past, Burr and Charles are leaning up against the wall of the dorms talking about whatever. Lee looks up from the conversation shortly followed by Burr. 

“John,” Lee says solemnly. John glares over, but doesn’t respond. While Alex was walking next to John trying not to laugh.

“John, Alexander,” Burr waves. Alex waves back and John’s face lights up and waves happily. 

“Hi Aaron,” John smiles.

“Hey,” Alex responds nonchalantly, tossing up his hand to say hello.  They continue inside, leaving Lee and Aaron outside, and start making their way to the nearest staircase. 

“So how do you know those two?” Alex asks, opening the door to the stairwell. They start making their way up the four flights of steps, including landings. He may’ve gotten into this snobby dorm and Alex did love his room, but it was still a pain in the ass to have to walk up so many flights of stairs.

“They’re both in my AV Lit classes,” John explains, holding his hand out, “Aaron’s chill, and Lee’s.” John stops himself and looks up at the wall in front of them in search for the right word. 

“Well, he’s a cunt,” John sighs. Alex laughs and John looks a bit surprised by this response, “What?” John smiles over at Alex. 

“I don’t know you don’t seem like the swearing type, with that southern belle accent and all,” Alex laughs as he opens the door to the fourth floor. John walks in and laughs. 

“You’ll come to find quickly, I’m no southern belle,” John smiles as he lets Alex lead him down the dorm’s hallway towards his dorm. 

“Sure,” Alex smirks, looking back at John. “My dorm’s right here,” Alex says as he slows down to his door, he unlocks it and pushes open the door for John to walk through. John walks in and looks around. Alex follows quickly in, shuffling to his room to put his bag away. 

“Make yourself at home,” Alex calls from his room. 

“Your dorm is so nice!” John smiles, still looking around at the dorm. It had four rooms if you included the bathroom. The living room/kitchen was the nicest room, it had light grey walls, american cherry wood planks (at least that’s what Lafayette told him), and had nice white furniture and bamboo plants. Most of the furniture and decorations were because of Lafayette (Alex found at quickly that him and his family had a bunch of money to throw away on stuff like that) he brought some old furniture, and some new ones and decorated the dorm before Alex even came. Alex wasn’t complaining, but he did feel a bit guilty that he paid for almost none of it. 

He did tell Lafayette he wasn’t allowed to loan any furniture to his room so his room was pretty crumby. It had the bed, dresser, and desk that was given to them for free, and that was basically all he had. He managed to wrangle up some extra money and bought a night stand and two cheap posters from some corner store (they were on sale). One was The Doors and the other was Metallica. His room was a lot more boring than Lafayette’s, with it’s princess canopy bed and thousands of decorative pillows, framed pictures, and ottoman (among other things). 

“Uh,” Alex steps out his room, awkwardly shutting the door, “Thanks. Ready to go?” John looks back at Alex and nods.

“So what started your hatred for Lee?” Alex asks, opening the door to the stairwell, “Besides him being a cunt and all.” John scoffs and looks off slightly, shaking his head. Alex smiles as they hurry down the stairs.

“We disagree on pretty much everything. He talks behind everyone's back, all the time,” John stops and smiles tightly, squinting his eyes slightly. “And I mean, if you’re going to trash talk someone do it to their face. It’s a real coward’s way out by all means,” John continued. Alex smiles as John rants, he was definitely passionate about this.

“One day I heard him talkin’ crap about Hercules and I just snapped,” John shrugs, “Batta-bing-batta-boom we’re throwing punches. A few sore fists later and we’re at the Dean’s office.” John laughs, and so does Alex. 

“This place sure does have a lot of those kinds of guys, don’t they?” Alex laughs, sticking his hands in his pockets. John nods and smiles down at his shoes. Alex heads towards the door that leads to the back parking lot, the day was nice and warm, and the clouds floated lazily across the sky. 

“Where do you live?” Alex asks as he unlocks his car, the back lights flashing to attention from its spot on the concrete. 

“Do you know where 14th is?” John asks as they get into the car and buckle up. Alex puts the keys in the ignition.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Drive down there and I’ll tell you where to go,” John says as Alex backs out of his parking spot and drives out of the parking lot. Alex starts making his way down the road and towards 14th street. 

“So what’re you in school for?” Alex asks, not looking away from the road. 

“Oh, I’m here for poli-sci with an emphasis on activism,” John says, pulling out his phone and looking through some apps. “You?”

“Poli-sci with a focus on economics and a minor in journalism,” Alex answers, going through some back roads to get to 14th quicker. 

“Journalism?” John asks simply, looking up from his phone to look at Alex. Alex laughs and nods, his brother was confused by the choice too, although his brother doesn’t know much either. Now James was just some broke swindler down in Florida. ( _ writer’s note: Alexander Hamilton’s brother was actually James Hamilton, but I doubt he ended up swindling people in Florida _ )

“Yeah, I mean besides being into writing from a pretty young age, you need to know how to put your thoughts down onto paper or you’ll never succeed,” Alex shrugs, pulling up to John’s street and slowing down, waiting for John’s directions. 

John makes this kind of thinking sound then says, “Yeah, makes sense.” Alex smiled and so did John. He was waiting as Alex drove down the road. 

“Here, this one,” John points out the window to a small (how small can a two story house be though?) light blue house. It’s small with a clean yard and stone path leading up to a house, definitely not the type of place you’d expect a bunch of college guys to live. Alex pulls into the small driveway, already filled with two other cars. They get out of the car and start up towards the house. 

“Nice house,” Alex compliments as John opens the door and walks in. The house smells like a vanilla candle from Bath and Body Works, it’s warm and inviting. 

“Oh, thanks,” John laughs. He calls out to a guy on the couch watching TV and he just grunts. He has black hair that hangs in his face and brightly colored clothes. The room was tan colored with white carpets, well they were probably originally white, now they’re covered in stains that colored the carpet an array of colors. The stains ranged from beer to blood to things Alex was sure he wouldn’t want to know. The room was relatively clean aside from a few soda cans and paper plate. 

“Here, my room’s up here,” John says as he leads Alex up to a staircase. The staircase is narrow so you can only walk up one-by-one, even still you feel really claustrophobic. They walk down a hallway with probably four rooms all lined down this tiny hallway and a bathroom at the end of the hall. John leads Alex into one and starts going through the closet. 

“Your room is nice,” Alex says as he looks around at the tidy room. John mutters a simple ‘thanks’. “Who else lives with you in the house. Besides Hercules, obviously,” Alex asks. John opens up a closet and claps his hands together, making Alex giggle. 

“This other guy, John Greene, but everyone calls him Greene. But we’re actually looking for another room mate,” John explains as he hangs his bag on this little hook on the wall of the closet. Alex nods and pushes up off of the bed and starts pacing. 

“What’re you doing?” John laughs as he slips a leather jacket over his sweater. The coat looks old, the elbows of the sweatshirt are worn out and the neck had a big rip in it, but otherwise it fit John fine and oddly refined him. He looked a lot older by putting the jacket. 

“I don’t know,” Alex laughs, stopping and looking John up and down. “Ready to go?” Alex asks, pointing his thumb towards the open door. 

“Oh, yeah,” John says, walking out of the room, followed quickly by Alex. “Isn’t it like Cafe Fraise?” John asks, looking back up at Alex as he walked down the stairs. Alex snickered at the name of the cafe. 

“Cafe Strawberry?” Alex snickered. John looked up at him with a confused look and a raised eyebrow. 

“Strawberry?” John asks. Alex smiles down as they exit the house and start walking down the driveway. 

“Yeah, fraise is strawberry in French,” Alex explains. John scoffs softly and smiles over at Alex. He had a really nice smile, he barely showed his teeth, his smile stretched out and dimples started to indent on his cheeks. 

“You speak French?” John asks skeptically. They get in the car and Alex laughs, buckling in . 

“Yep, bilingual,” Alex answers gleaming over to John. John makes a sort of “hm” sound which made Alex laugh. It wasn’t really the sound he made, it was the face he made. His eyebrows shot up, and his lips pursed together, and he nodded a bit. Something about it was really funny to Alex. 

“What classes do you have?” Alex asks, barely looking over from his window. John was humming a bit and looks over like he hadn’t heard him.

“Oh, uh, poli-sci, AV Lit, activism, US History, current events, among other things,” John lists things off on his hands and shrugs by the end. “You?” John asks, giving a soft smile to Alex. 

“I have poli-sci, AV journalism, current events, economics, et cetera,” Alex shrugs. John nods and watches out his window at the passing trees. 

“Are you in any  _ extracurricular activities _ ,” Alex says in a nasally-joke voice. John laughs and shakes his head. 

“Yeah, track and field,” John smiles. Alex nods and smiles at the road. “You?” John asks with a smile dancing across his lips.

“Debate club,” Alex explains. John does that funny look for when he’s surprised and makes Alex giggle and cover his mouth. 

“Really? You guys are the reason that we had to get a new podium for Mr. Washington’s room?” John asks with a slight laugh. Alex smiles and looks down at his lap then back up at the road. 

“Yep, Thomas Jefferson is in it with me and things escalated and yeah,” Alex trails off, scratching at his cheek. John laughs and shakes his head. 

“What could’ve lead to breaking a podium?” John asks, raising his eyebrow. Alex laughs and looks off at some hydrant on the road.

“Thomas and I were debating each other about gun regulations and it got pretty heated, a few thrown books later and Thomas accidentally tipped over the podium. It’s top fell off and the entire room went silent,” Alex laughs, gesturing as he talked. “And I may or may not have tackled him into the podium,” Alex looks off and laughs. John erupts into laughter. His eyes were shut tight and his smile was big and took up most of his face. His nose scrunched up and in a way it was still peaceful. Alex knew that when  _ he _ laughed he looked like a madman and weird, but John looked oddly nice 

“ _ You _ , tackling  _ Thomas Jefferson _ ? Are you  _ sure _ ,”John teases. Alex looks over with a grin and nods his head. 

“I did, really,” Alex laughs along. John had a toothy smile as he shook his head.

“I cannot see that, oh my God,” John laughs and covers his mouth. Alex smiles at the road. The little cafe with a big strawberry on the sign comes into view. It reads  _ Cafe Fraise _ in big curly letters and even the outside has a red, white, black, and gold theme. The table and chairs have that stereotypical curly design and a bunch of striped awnings, even with the blandness of it all it’s quite cute. 

“Ready to go and  _ spy _ ?” John chuckles mischievously. Alex scoffs and shakes his head, with a small smirk on his lips, John laughs. “I’m gonna take that as a yes,” John smiles as he unbuckles and hops out of the car, waiting for Alex to join him. Alex gets out of the car, locking it and joining John to walk up to the little cafe. 

“It is a nice place for a first date,” Alex admits as they cross the street. John nods and opens the little french-style doors to the sitting room. They both walk in and immediately look away from the two sitting at the table. 

“Hurry, inside, before they notice,” Alex whispers quickly, briskly walking to the door and pushing it open for John. They jog in, laughing and looking back to the two chatting at the table. They turn to each other and erupt back into laughter. 

“Okay, let’s get a table,” John says, gesturing over to the lady by the front desk. They walk up to the lady and after a few moments get seated by a window, conveniently right next to Lafayette and Hercules’s table. The window is one-sided, so unless they intentionally look through the window they won’t be able to see them. Lafayette and Hercules were taking turns talking while John and Alex watch and snicker. 

“They look happy,” John smiles out the window at the two. Alex nods and lays his chin on his hand. 

“Definitely,” Alex looks away from the window, towards John. He was smiling contently with his freckles stretching around his face.

“Hey, random question, but are you dating anyone?” John asks, his eyes dragging over to Alex. 

“Nope, I’m a single-Pringle,” Alex laughs, shaking his head. John laughs, covering his mouth. “You?” Alex asks. 

“Nope, I’m a single-Pringle too,” John smiles, looking back towards the window.  _ Duly-noted _ , Alex thinks quickly. The gates to the cafe open and two people step in. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Alex groans and rolls his eyes at the two. John looks over at Alex confused, then at the window towards the two and goes “Oh”.

“Oh God, please eat outside,” Alex mumbles as he watches the two walk into the cafe, hand-in-hand. 

“Wait, is Thomas and James a thing?” John asks, his finger following the two. Alex looks over and nods silently. 

“Haven’t you seen them make out in the bathrooms and stuff?” Alex snickers, “Or is that only me and my bad luck?” John laughs and looks past Alex towards the front desk. 

“I’ve never seen them,” John laughs. He flickers his eyes back to Alex. “They’re heading outside,” John whispers. Alex takes a deep breath and slouches down a bit. 

“Thank God,” Alex breathes. John laughs and a waitress walks up to their table. 

“What would you two like to drink today?” the lady recited. Alex looks down to the menu.

“Water would be great,” John smiles warmly to the lady, you could see her cheeks go red slightly. Alex looks up from his menu and scoffs, flicking his eyes to John then quickly back to the lady. 

“A raspberry lemonade?” Alex asks. The lady nods and tells them she’ll be right back with their drinks. 

“Oh God, look at those two,” John snickers, pointing down at their hands. Lafayette’s hand was turned upwards and held Hercules’s, rubbing his thumb across the back of his hand. Alex laughs and rolls his eyes. 

“They act like a married couple, not two people on their first date,” Alex laughs. John nods and laughs. 

“Hercules is totally one of those guys that kiss on the first date, he takes things fast,” John explains, curling one of the tendrils of hair that fell from his ponytail around his finger. 

“Lafayette is too,”Alex agrees, watching Lafayette’s smiling face. He looked really happy. Lafayette dated a few other people a few months ago, but after the last girl broke his heart he started being more careful with people. 

“How about you? Are you one of those people?” Alex asks, looking over to John. His face goes slightly pink and his eyebrows raise up, he looks flustered. 

“Erm, not usually, no, but I guess it depends on the person though,” John explains, quickly regaining his calm demeanor from before. Alex chuckles and nods. 

“Yeah, I’m like that too,” Alex nods. John smiles over at him. 

“I guess we’re not so different, are we?” John asks. Alex smiles at John, then looks out the window at the two sitting and smiling about their conversation. 

“I guess we aren’t.”


	4. Who Doesn't Love the Smell of Books?

“Alex!” Lafayette yells from the living room. “Emergency!” Lafayette warns. Alex sighs, looking up from his desk. Lafayette was more than known for his over-exaggeration. He pulls off his glasses and rubs at his eyes with the back of his wrist. He might as well take a break from the paper he was working on, he was starting to get writer’s block from the assignment. It was something for his economics class and he felt like he’s been bs-ing it the whole time. So he was making it seem extra fancy with big words and similes. Of course they got extra credit for similes, so it was helping his grade. Alex pushes up from his desk and walks into the living room. 

“What’s up?” Alex asks nonchalantly, hands in his pockets. Lafayette turns towards Alex, his cheeks and ears red and his eyes full of excitement, grasping his phone tight. “Ooh,” Alex mumbles happily when he sees the freshly filled fruit basket Alex laughs, plucking a banana from the small basket. 

“Hercules invited us to hang out with him and John at the library, you have to come with me, please?” Lafayette asks, showing Alex the text. 

“Sure, why not?” Alex shrugs as he takes a bite of the banana. Lafayette smiles and pumps his hand in the air. 

“Thank you Alex! I owe you!” Lafayette says as he hurries to his room to change. “Wait there, I’ll be there in a moment,” Lafayette calls from his closed doors. Alex sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. 

“Lafayette, you look fine, you don’t need to change,” Alex sighs. Lafayette laughs and walks out of his room. 

“Let’s go,” Alex laughs, shaking his head.

\---------

“Alex, how do I look?” Lafayette asks as he fiddles with his ponytail and pulls at his clothes. Alex locks the car and looks Lafayette up and down, sighing. His hair was still in that tight ponytail, and he had on a loose light blue sweater and dark blue jeans with rips in the knees. Lafayette had on these nice clothes, probably to show-off to Hercules, while Alex looked like it was nothing different, which it wasn’t. He was just wearing a green shirt that had “Non-Stop” in white lettering across the chest and white jeans, he literally just pulled it out of his closet and threw it on. 

“Absolutely horrible,” Alex puffs, pulling at the strap on his laptop bag. Lafayette frowns down at Alex and shakes his head, clicking his tongue. “Oh calm down, I’m just giving you a hard time, you look fine,” Alex sighs, rolling his eyes. Lafayette laughs and brushes at his jeans. 

“Okay, let’s go,” Lafayette says with a new confidence. He strode confidently towards the door of the library and threw open the door, with Alex walking behind and laughing. John and Hercules were leaning against the window and wall, talking to each other, John shrugging once or twice. Lafayette turned to Alex with a flustered look before walking, with Alex in tow, towards them. 

“Cheri, how are you?” Lafayette chirps as he approaches the other two. Hercules looks up, past John and at Lafayette, visibly brightening. John turns his head and looks at the two running towards each other, it was almost like they were in a bad romance movie. As Lafayette and Hercules hug John flicks his eyes down at Alex and laughs. He pushes off of the wall, his hands in his pockets, and walks towards Alex, making a weird face at the other two. John was wearing a black shirt with “#Black Lives Matter” in white bold letters, he had dark blue jeans and red converse. 

“Hey,” Alex waves, “I like your shirt.” John smiles and gives Alex a thumbs up. 

“Thanks! How are you?” John asks, pushing at his hair. Alex shrugs. 

“I’ve been working on my economics paper whenever I don’t have class, so bad to mediocre,” Alex answers with a smile. John laughs and shakes his head. 

“You’re really something Alex, you know that?” John laughs as they follow behind Hercules and Lafayette as they all walk into the front area of the library. Alex had been here countless times, it was one of Alex’s “safe-spaces”, he’d come here whenever his stress became too much or his anxiety was seeping into every corner of his mind. It has that nice smell that all libraries have, like old books and crayons. 

“There’s some tables in the back, “ John says, pointing past Lafayette and Hercules towards a alcove of bookshelves. Alex knew the place he was talking about and nodded. They made their way to a little corner of the library that has tables lined up and bookshelves hiding away from the rest of the library. The librarians always put too much Febreeze in the air and made it almost noxious, but it was the only place in the library with reasonable air-conditioning, so there was usually a lot of people. Though there wasn’t anybody besides them that day. They sat at the table near the window and started to work, at least Alex did. He pulled out his computer, accidentally hitting John’s arm as he did, he muttered a small “sorry” and sat his computer on the table. Hercules did that dumb, cheesy move where he pretends to yawn and puts his arm around Lafayette’s neck. Lafayette looks over and and smiles, Lafayette’s into those cheesy moves, it was probably because he was pretty cheesy himself. 

“How was your guy’s date yesterday?” John asks, laying his head on his palm, smiling. Alex scoffs, looking over to John.  _ How bad are you at pretending like we didn’t spy on them? _ Alex asks himself. 

“I,” Hercules said slowly, looking over to Lafayette, “liked it. What about you, Laf?” Hercules looked a bit nervous waiting for Lafayette’s answer. Alex thought it was funny, after Lafayette came home he was walking around the dorm humming Disney songs ( _ like I said, he was pretty cheesy _ ) and bobbing his head back and forth. 

“I hand tons of fun,” Lafayette chuckles. Hercules takes a relieved breath and quickly smiles big and bright. John and Alex both laughed and rolled their eyes as the two beam at each other. 

“Anyways, how was classes for you guys today?” Alex asks, wanting to move past those two and their lovey-dovey date. Something about seeing people being all happy and lovey with each other made Alex a bit uncomfortable, it wasn’t because he was jealous or anything, it was more because he felt like he was walking in on some private thing. 

“Mediocre,” John mocked with a laugh. Alex scoffed and rolled his eyes. John sticks out his tongue and scrunches up his nose. Lafayette giggles and so does Hercules, Alex looked over at the two, surprised they even heard the joke from before. 

“My day was good,” Hercules nodded, one hand going to his hat. Hercules was wearing a red beanie, a grey t-shirt, and dark blue jeans, cuffed at the ankles. 

“Mine was too,” Lafayette smiles. Alex laughs and nods. 

“I need to get this damn paper done, but I can’t concentrate on any of it,” Alex groans, using his wrist to push at his hairline, pushing aside a few stray strands that fell out of his ponytail. Hercules laughs, it’s one of those loud, boisterous laughs. 

“Do what I do and put it off until the night before,” Hercules jokes. All of them laughed and Alex shook his head. 

“What’s the paper about?” John asks, leaning over to look at Alex’s screen. John’s arm was pressed against Alex’s shoulder and their faces were close, Alex felt a bit embarrassed- especially because of the look Lafayette was giving him- but he didn’t make a big deal of it. 

“Economics, we have to talk about the “economic rollercoaster” America has been or whatever,” Alex shrugs. “ And I can’t figure out if any of it makes sense or has a good flow,” Alex puffs. John starts reading through the doc, his eyes dancing along the page.

After a few seconds John looks to Alex and smiles, “I think it sounds good. Maybe reword the conclusion, it’s a bit lackluster, but other than that it’s good.” Alex raises his eyebrows and looks down to the computer screening.

“Thanks,” Alex says, looking back up at him. John nods and Alex starts typing away at his paper. John leans back into the booth and looks back to the other two. 

“John, how was track yesterday?” Hercules asks, dropping his hand down from Lafayette’s neck to his hand. Alex rolled his eyes and looked over at John. 

“You’re in track?” Alex asks, a bit surprised. John looks at him and nods, looking off and scratching at his cheek. “That’s cool, I’m not athletic enough to do sports,” Alex laughs. “Did you come here on a scholarship?” Alex asks, stopping his typing. 

“Oh jeez, no, I liked track when I did it in highschool so I just decided to play in college too,” John shrugged, laying his elbow on the back of the booth seat. 

“Are you good?” Alex asks. John scoffs and looks down at his lap.

“I don’t know,” John trails off. Hercules laughs and slams his hand onto the table. He was really loud and jolly.

“Stop being so modest,” Hercules laughs, “ Don’t listen to him, he’s super fast!” John facepalms and shakes his head, his cheeks red. Lafayette snickers softly into his hand and Hercules laughs along with Alex. 

“Maybe we could all get together at one of your track meets,” Alex suggests. John looks over with a seemingly surprised look and chuckles. 

“Yeah, that’d be cool,” John smiles. Alex nods and continues on his paper, trying his hardest to ignore the smile on John’s face as the other three talk. 

“Have you two decided when you’re having your next date?” John asks. Lafayette and Hercules exchanged flustered looks and laugh. 

“Yeah, actually, two days from now,” Hercules nods, looking back to him. John has this goofy smirk on his face and one eyebrow raised and one down. 

“You’re a dweeb John,” Hercules mutters. Alex looks over from his computer and laughs, John looking over at him, still with that dumb look on his face. 

“You really are,” Alex laughs. 

“Psh, like you have any room to talk, Mr. I-tackled-a-guy-five-times-my-size,” John jokes, punching Alex’s on the shoulder. Alex laughs and rubs at his shoulder. 

“That actually hurt, and Thomas isn’t five times my size,” Alex sticks his tongue out at John. They both laugh and shake their heads. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to update twice a week, so that'll be fun. But this is also slow, slow burn and it's painful...


End file.
